Somebody That I Used To Know
by feeling-o'-stupidity
Summary: Sometimes things don't seem fair. Some things never do. It might be hard to recognize these thing as irreversible but it's never impossible. Songfic of "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye. Probably a oneshot


Phineas sat in his room thinking, as he had been finding himself doing more recently, with a computer on his lap while his step-brother used the desk. He sat there with a screensaver going across the screen having long ago stopped browsing. He turned to look out the window and listened to the soft pit-patting of the rain as it bounced across the slightly ajar window, distant sounds of thunder ominously rolling in the distance.

"Phineas!" Ferb shouted an incredulous look on his face toward his brother.

"Well there's no need to yell I'm right here." Phineas said growing his own look of confusion.

"That's what I thought the first five times I called you, mind closing the window and/or tossing me my phone out from under it." Phineas looked to see his brother's phone sparkling with small droplets of water on the screen.

"Sorry bro, I was a little dazed." Phineas said wiping his brother's phone off on his shirt and tossing it to him.

"I noticed..." Ferb said quietly looking at his phone out of habit. Phineas moved the mouse on the computer to see that he had been in the middle of emailing an important client when he dazed out and had already received 2 impatient messages plus the one he ignored. He said sorry and gave the shipping information before closing the computer and rubbing his eyes. He wasn't tired but he also wasn't as awake as he felt he should be.

* * *

He and Ferb were in their senior year of high school and sometime in sophomore year they realized it would be beneficial to themselves and their family to start a more permanent business around their inventions. Ranging from designing for others or distribution of their own products they maintained a reasonable industry that required more consistent and repetitive work than either of them was happy to conform to. Despite this they truly enjoyed working together and with their clients because every day was different and they never had a day when they didn't know what they wanted to do.

Last year was more of an influential one then when they started their business in some respects. They began the college search and had classes that even showed them problems. Combined with this and their business Candace graduated from Danville University and went on a world tour with Jeremy and his band. What really hit home however was the moving of the Garcia-Shapiros across Danville. Isabella still went to the same school but she had lived across the street since they were 4 and now she was a 20 minute drive away. On the day she was moving Phineas noticed something he might not have otherwise; how much he did not want her to leave. That was the day they began dating, a relationship that was basically just a slightly less oblivious Phineas who now set more time aside specifically for his best friend.

The relationship was as good as all their friends imagined it would be, they loved each other and it was amazing but like oh too many perfect relationships something wasn't right. As the year they were together went on things slowed down, days together became indistinguishable, being together for them became an obligation and routine more so than an enjoyable activity. Phineas found himself more and more involved in work while Isabella found herself more and more being forgotten about with Phineas's projects to blame. Something she was more than used to but never accustomed to. Nothing much had really changed since before they went out and Isabella had had enough.

* * *

"Phineas is it about..." with the slightest flick of the eye to his brother Phineas accidentally acknowledged his brother and quickly responded in a rushed obvious way

"Who, Isabella? Don't be silly bro. We both agreed, it was the right thing to do." Phineas said feeling himself choke but knowing better than to let his brother make notice of it. Ferb nodded and turned back to his work not wishing to tread down that slippery slope just yet.

A couple minutes passed, maybe an hour neither of them could tell, when Phineas realized the cd he had in his computer was missing, in fact most of the cds that were on his dresser were gone.

"Hey Ferb did you borrow my cds?" he asked Ferb

"The Fireside girls picked them up while you were out for Isabella." Phineas froze

"Okay then." It was fair, they _were_ hers. What felt odd was that they had been there since before they went out for when they were hanging out in his room on rainy days.

* * *

Of course Phineas loved Isabella, everyone loved Isabella and Phineas loved all of his friends. He had known Isabella forever and she was always the cutest person he knew. When they reached the age where Phineas began to notice girls it only made sense she was the first he'd notice. He told himself she was perfect for him and when he saw how happy she was he knew it was the most correct decision he'd ever made.

But Phineas didn't know what a relationship entailed and for his first it shouldn't have been someone that close to him. He had a job and his projects always seemed to be first to him. Isabella realized he wouldn't change and told him they could still be friends. Phineas became quite relieved, he felt a million pound weight of stress of trying to be perfect for her be lifted and he could go back to just being friends and hanging out.

The day after they had broken up she didn't show up in his backyard which he understood he wasn't the same oblivious kid he had once been and he knew it might be awkward for a while.

After a week he thought something might actually be wrong but Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro insisted Isabella just wasn't feeling well. She also insisted Isabella wasn't home when Phineas asked.

He was cut off from his best friend. Not a single word from her. Not even a hello. Overnight it seemed she had disappeared. And it didn't seem fair. Some things never do

* * *

"You sure everything's alright?" Phineas heard from the blankness. He looked down to see small drops of water on his keyboard.

"Fine, just thinking about someone."

"Isa.."

"Not somebody I know anymore." Ferb looked to see a small spark in Phineas's eye reignite as another died. "We haven't done anything for the Danville homeless in a while Ferb. How about a flying apartment complex! And it could go straight to people who need it with a rocket entrance and a water-slide..." Phineas rambled in his uniquely creative way. Ferb watched with a smile as his old brother re-emerged and began work on blueprints.

* * *

Isabella found herself talking to Gretchen as they listened to some old dusty cds she had gotten back a couple days ago. Gretchen's phone rang and her eyes widened for a second as she answered.

"Can you put her on?" Gretchen looked at her friend

"I don't think so.." Isabella heard her friend's voice wavering, something rare on any occasion. Isabella took the phone, looked at it and held it to her ear walking outside.

"What do you want?" She asked with a tone of bitterness she had never expected she would have.

"To know what went wrong."

"We broke up. Every time we had something planned you had something else to do and all I could ever think was that I wasn't interesting enough of funny enough for the incredible Phineas Flynn." Isabella had spent a large portion of her life living up to invisible expectations for someone who would never show her the sort of attention she wanted. "You said we should and that it was the right thing."

"But not that we should never speak together ever again. What happened to just 'being friends'?"

"It's not always that black and white Phineas."

"I know but couldn't we just…"

"I can't." Isabella hung up and held the phone to her chest. She was not going to let herself fall for him again and she could only think of one way for that to work. She went back inside to Gretchen and handed her the phone back. "I remember this song, it's been forever since I heard it." She said in a happy voice

"Are you sure you're..."

"Going to dance? You better believe it!" Isabella began mercilessly slaughtering multiple dance moves while Gretchen couldn't help but smile and join in. She hadn't see Isabella that happy since Phineas noticed her and she wasn't going to let it pass.

And they both continued with their lives as most people do, only occasionally looking back and thinking about the people, the friends, that they used to know.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Glad I was able to get something back up here again. If anybody noticed I went missing for 8 months. Basically in November I got an extreme writer's block which drained my will to write (along with school). I also haven't really watched this show consistently or read any fanfiction since then so if this has been done I don't know/care. This might be a comeback but probably not, just something to keep me busy. Enjoy!


End file.
